“An Elegant Shell”

Silverpoint Drawing
5×7″ prepared paper

Nature constantly inspires! I’ve seen many lathe-turned wooden vessels whose shapes are similar to the body of this elegant shell.

Silverpoint is a drawing that is rendered with a wire of silver. This was used extensively during the Renaissance era, before the graphite pencil simplified things. The drawing surface must be “prepared” with a slightly textured formula that lightly abrades the silver. The metallic silver lines that are left will gradually tarnish (oxidize) to a sepia tone.

I prepare fine papers and panels with various tints of color: ocher, blue-gray, salmon-pink, green-gray and lavender. Visit my website to see a broader range of work in silverpoint and my other mediums.

“Sphere with Pin-stripes”

Silverpoint Drawing
4.5×5″ prepared paper

This is drawn with a rod of silver on specially prepared fine art paper. Silverpoint pre-dates the graphite pencil as a drawing medium and was used extensively in the Renaissance era. With time the silver lines tarnish to their characteristic sepia tone.

Visit My Website for more on this and for a look at my home-made silverpoint drawing tools and box.

“Shell”

Silverpoint Drawing
3.5×5″ prepared paper

As stated many times previously on this blog, silverpoint is a drawing medium that was used extensively during the Renaissance era; pre-graphite pencil. The drawing surface must be specially prepared to allow for the slight abrasion of the silver. The metallic lines that are left will gradually tarnish (oxidize) to a sepia tone.

I prepare my panels and fine papers with various tints of color: ocher, blue-gray, salmon-pink, green-gray and lavender. Please see other silverpoint drawings that have been posted here. Or, visit my website to see a broader range of work in silverpoint and my other mediums.

“Whorls”

Silverpoint Drawing
4×5″ blue-gray prepared paper

A good way to end the day is to draw in silverpoint. It has a calming effect. Seashells are a favorite subject of mine - and the more missing parts - the better.

I prepared fine art paper with a blue-gray tone and highlighted the drawing with white charcoal. A silverpoint is a drawing rendered with a silver stylus, i.e., a silver wire inserted into a holder. The drawing surface must be “prepared” with a coating that allows for a slight abrasion of the metal. With time, those metal lines will oxidize (tarnish) to their characteristic metallic sepia tone.

Please visit my website for a broader look at this Renaissance-era drawing medium.

“Renaissance Boy”

Silverpoint Drawing
7×5″ pale ocher prepared panel

This is an earlier silverpoint drawing from my collection, based on the painting “Head of a Boy” by Signorelli. I’m always trying new ways to use line.

Not For Sale yet.

“Mona”

Silverpoint Drawing
7×5″ gray-green prepared paper

When I began to work in silverpoint, way back in the ’80s, I selected familiar portraits from the Renaissance period and practiced my technique by copying them. (Silverpoint is a Renaissance-era drawing medium that predates the pencil. A silver wire is inserted in a wooden or metal holder and used as a drawing instrument. The silver lines will gradually tarnish to a warm sepia tone.) I still enjoy the practice of copying from the masters and drawing from my large collection of shells, skulls and many natural objects.

While drawing from DaVinci’s painting of Mona Lisa I saw that there are many “lifts” in the face: along the eyes, forehead, corners of the mouth, cheeks. The more you look, the more you see. Each time I draw this face, the seeing goes a little deeper.

I prepared the paper with a pale gray-green tone and used white charcoal for highlights. To learn more about silverpoint please visit My Website.

Please email me if you are interested in this drawing.

“Ovoids”

Silverpoint Drawing
5×7″ lavender-gray prepared paper

To work in silverpoint is to meditate. It takes patience, and layers and layers of lines. I enjoy unwinding with this Renaissance-era drawing medium which is simply a silver wire inserted in a holder that is drawn across a slightly abrasive surface, leaving lines of silver.

The egg shaped stone with its oval bands matched the contour of the egg. I started in on the drawing, relating the two forms and forgetting about all else… I used white charcoal to highlight the finished drawing.

Please email me if you are interested in this silverpoint.

“Broken Shell”

Silverpoint Drawing
7.5×5.5″ green-gray prepared paper

Here’s another “interior” piece that I drew a while back. This shell is one of my favorite things, a beautiful natural sculpture. While drawing this I thought of the curving walls of the shell, stretching across the missing parts. Tones in a silverpoint drawing are made up of layers of lines. I’ve been doing silverpoint drawings since the mid-’80s and I’m still searching for lines that best express the thing before me - and I suppose that’s how it will continue to go.

To learn more about this Renaissance-era drawing medium, please go to My Website or see others in The Art Fly archives.

Please email me if you are interested in this silverpoint for $175. (mat included) + $6. shipping.

“Inside Out”

Silverpoint Drawing
5×4.5″ blue-gray prepared paper

This seashell was drawn with a silver stylus on specially coated paper, a Renaissance-era medium known as Silverpoint. Layers upon layers of lines become tones, and over time the silver gradually tarnishes to a metallic sepia. The drawing is heightened in white ink.

See more silverpoints in The Art Fly archives, and on My Website. Please email me to purchase this.

“Shaker”

Silverpoint Drawing
4.5×6.5″ blue-gray prepared paper

Lately, I’ve been focused on working in wood, putting most of my energy behind some ideas I’m trying out in that medium…must get it while it’s hot. Every year the New Hope Arts Center (PA) holds a national juried “Works in Wood” exhibition. Following up from some previous blog posts, the wood-mosaic work I submitted has been selected for this upcoming show. For those who love wood this is the show! Very diverse offerings: unusual tables, chairs, cabinets, lamps, musical instruments, carvings, turned vessels, wood mosaic mirror frames.…The Opening Night is Saturday, November 14 - always a big and exciting event! Photos of that to come…

After periods of intense creativity I like to unwind by drawing in silverpoint, which is such a meditative medium, one that I’ve been using since the mid ’80s. A silver stylus (wire) is drawn over a lightly textured surface that gently abrades the silver, leaving metal lines. I prepare a color-toned surface and then add highlights in white chalk or white ink. The initial silver lines are gray, like pencil lines, but with time will warm up to a sepia tone - like tarnished silver.

An object could be interpreted in so many ways; this sculptural shaker caught my eye. The vase-like body of it fitting into the ring…all the individual parts analyzed while I drew. Yet, another interpretation would skip the analysis and be simply tonal, or shapely…

Please email me if you are interested in this silverpoint.